2023 SPE Annual ConferenceSpeakers

Sama Alshaibi

Saturday, March 18, 2023 @ 6:00pm, Grandballroom I & II

An Index of Return - Sama Alshaibi

Sama Alshaibi's (b. 1973, Iraq) photographs and videos situate her own body as a site of performance, considering the social and gendered impacts of war and migration. Her work complicates the coding of the Arab... read more

Jeremiah Ariaz

Saturday, March 18, 2023 @ 12:00pm, Tower D

Community News: The Fourth Estate in Kansas

Jeremiah Ariaz received his BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute and MFA from the State University of New York at Buffalo. His research-based practice is focused on examining the constructs of American identity within... read more

Justyna Badach

Saturday, March 18, 2023 @ 9:00am, Grand Ballroom II

Today, I photographed the Mona Lisa! Professional opportunities in museum imaging

Justyna Badach received her MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art, she dedicated the last 25 years to teaching, curating and exhibiting her fine art work. She has been the Head of Imaging at the... read more

Raphael Begay

Friday, March 17, 2023 @ 3:00pm, Tower D

Nihighan: Our Home

Rapheal Begay is a visual storyteller based in the Navajo Nation. His work activates cultural landscape photography and oral storytelling traditions to document and celebrate the Diné way of life. His research and practice include... read more

Clare Benson

Saturday, March 18, 2023 @ 1:00pm, Tower D

Ancient Cities, Daughters, and Suns

Clare Benson is a photographer and interdisciplinary artist from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. She is the recipient of awards including a Fulbright Fellowship to Arctic Sweden, PDN's Emerging Photographer, and grants from the American... read more

Katina Bitsicas

Saturday, March 18, 2023 @ 11:00am, Tower B

In Over My Head & In Memoriam

Katina Bitsicas is a new media artist exploring grief, loss, trauma and memory. She received her MFA from the University of South Florida and is an Assistant Professor of Digital Storytelling at the University of... read more

Amanda Breitbach

Friday, March 17, 2023 @ 9:00am, Grand Ballroom II

The View from Above: Teaching Drone Photography

Amanda Breitbach is an assistant professor of art at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, TX. She earned bachelor's degrees in photography and French from Montana State University and her MFA from the University... read more

Linda Brooks

Saturday, March 18, 2023 @ 9:00am, Grand Ballroom I

"What does this have to do with photography?" The early years of the SPE Women's Caucus

Linda Brooks is a Twins Cities-based artist, teacher, curator, and parent whose photo-based projects explore the relationship between imagery's personal content with larger cultural contexts. Brooks earned a BFA (1973) and an MFA (1976) from... read more

Louis Chavez

Friday, March 17, 2023 @ 9:00am, Tower B

Grad Student Presentations

Louis Chavez is a visual artist and graduate student in the Photography and Related Media MFA program at Rochester Institute of Technology. Their solo exhibition, New Intimacies, was exhibited at University of Rochester's Hartnett Gallery... read more

Elizabeth Claffey

Friday, March 17, 2023 @ 10:00am, Tower D

Thresholds

Elizabeth Claffey is an Assistant Professor at Indiana University, a 2019-20 Research Fellow at The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction, and a 2012-13 Fulbright Fellow. Her work focuses on the way... read more

Laura Cobb

Saturday, March 18, 2023 @ 9:00am, Tower D

Grad Student Presentations

Laura Cobb is an MFA candidate at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. She received her BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute. She has been an artist in residence at various artist foundations. Her work... read more

Kelli Connell

Saturday, March 18, 2023 @ 11:00am, Grand Ballroom I

Mining Identities: Three Artists Discuss Their New Publications

Kelli Connell's work investigates sexuality, gender, and photographer / sitter relationships. She is a 2022-2023 Guggenheim Fellowship recipient for her project Picture for Charis which will be published by Aperture in 2024. Kelli lives in... read more